Lord Baby Runs a Romance Fantasy

Chapter 3

My faint voice faded away.

I was sad. Sad, devastated, and depressed. It felt like I was left all alone in this world.

The duke’s cold voice fell on my head. “How absurd.”

My eyes welled up.

“But you’re my dad!” I screeched as I raised my head.

To be honest, there was no way that the duke would feel like my father even though he was standing in front of me. However…

“Heuk…” Maybe it was because of this damned child’s body, but for some reason, it felt as if I had really been abandoned by my father.

I was trying hard not to cry, but my eyes must have teared up before I could realize. The duke’s face became blurred.

But that gave me the courage I needed. I could no longer see his cold, stern face anymore.

“You’re my dad!” Just like how Clytié had the marquess, you were supposed to be there for me.

“I want to go home!”

Tears poured down my face. My nose stung. I clenched my two small fists and clung onto the duke’s leg. I was determined to not let go.

“Daddy, please take me home!”

* * *

It was deadly silent. I could almost hear the bystanders swallowing their breaths.

I slowly opened my eyes.

Drip.

As a single tear fell down, I looked up at Duke Phaeraton’s face. He wore an extremely frightening expression.

He wasn’t making a scary face or glaring at me. As a matter of fact, his face was expressionless. Yet, it was still frightening.

Hic. I started to hiccup against my will. The duke extended his hand toward me.

No! I won’t let go! I clung onto his leg for dear life.

I did everything in my power to hold on to him, but Duke Phaeraton easily freed me with just one hand. Unlike my expectations, he didn’t push me away. Instead, he held me up to his eye level and stared me down.

My gaze met his red eyes a palm’s width away. I could tell at first glance that I wasn’t to his liking.

Hmph. What makes you think that you’re to my liking? I’m only acting like this because I’ll die if I keep living here!

Hic. Unlike my confident internal shouts, my hiccups kept leaking out. The duke raised one eyebrow and finally started to move, still holding me.

“Your Grace.” The aide, who had been following the duke like a shadow, called for him as if to dissuade him.

“We’re heading back.” Leaving only those words behind, the duke walked away. I dangled along his waist with every step he took.

If he’s heading back... does that mean he’s taking me with him?

My heart began to pound. Finally! Finally, I’d be escaping this awful place! I didn’t blink once as I stared at the door that was nearing with every step.

“Ah.” Duke Phaeraton suddenly stopped walking.

What’s wrong? I glanced up at him but got nothing from his expressionless face. Anxiety slowly crept up my feet.

The duke turned his body right as we neared the door, and I was also forced to turn alongside him as I still remained dangling by his waist.

D-don’t tell me... My heart dropped to the floor. I firmly held onto the duke as if he were my one and only lifeline.

No! You can’t abandon me! At that very moment...

“Kyaaah!”

A piercing scream filled the hall.

What...?

I looked toward the source of the scream with a puzzled look on my face. My hands were clenching onto the duke’s chest.

“Tié!”

“My lady!”

“W-what happened…?”

I was able to catch a glimpse of Clytié amongst the chaos of people who had gathered around her. The expensive dress that had been decorated with hand-embroidered diamonds was torn all over.

“My…my dress! My dress is…!” Clytié fell to the floor and touched her tattered dress.

The pale-faced marquess wrapped his arms around Clytié’s shoulder and called out to the duke. “Duke Phaeraton!”

Don’t tell me that the duke did that. Duke Phaeraton didn’t draw his sword, nor was he anywhere near Clytié. But looking at the timing and the marquess’s reaction, it seemed as though it was the duke’s doing.

“Have you lost your sense of judgment? How dare you covet something that isn’t yours.”

The marquess flinched at Duke Phaeraton’s cold words, and he turned his head to look away rather than refute back, which took me by surprise.

The marquess loomed over me, making it impossible for me to defy him. It was weird to see him give in so easily to the duke.

It’s almost as if the duke has some kind of dirt on him. That was what surprised me the most.

“D-daddy!” Clytié called to her dad with her face full of tears, but all that the marquess did was try to comfort her rather than argue with the duke.

The duke turned his body as if to say that this was the last time that they would be meeting.

Clinging onto his chest, I let out a breath of relief.

Thank goodness. He didn’t leave me behind. But what was the marquess trying to hide?

With that question still lingering in the air, I left the hellish Tarenka residence and headed for Duke Phaeraton’s estate.

* * *

Why is the ceiling above the bed so fancy?

It was the same ceiling I’d seen at the estate for the past ten days, but I couldn’t get used to it.

I opened my eyes and stretched my arms, yet again surprised by the sight before me. I let out a big yawn. Even after all that sleep, I still felt drowsiness clinging to my eyes.

I wonder what time it is. No matter how much I slept in, the people here never woke me up. Thanks to that, I was able to sleep as much as I wanted to.

And as soon as I woke up, they would somehow know and enter my room almost immediately.

“Are you awake, my lady?”

Just like that.

“Yes, good morning to you.”

The maid quietly bowed in response. I glanced at the maids who stood around me like indoor decorations as I dipped my hands into a bowl of water to wash my face.

They have no expressions, as usual.

During the few days I’d been here, I’d never seen any maids laugh or make the slightest hint of a smile. Oh, and they spoke and responded only when it was necessary.

It doesn’t seem like they’re ignoring me or have any bad feelings towards me… I finished washing my face and hauled myself out of the bed.

The bed here was a lot higher than the beds in my past life, so it was much harder to get on and off due to my small frame.

Well, I guess even in my past life, the more expensive beds were said to be higher off the ground. I wouldn’t know since I never owned a bed.

I stood on top of the rug with my two feet and tried to walk in place.

Nice, my legs don’t hurt anymore.

My legs used to be in pain whenever I put pressure on my calf muscles because of the scars that had been there, but I could no longer feel any pain.

Likewise, my cold was long gone. Ever since I arrived at Duke Phaeraton’s estate, my health had recovered very quickly.

After scrubbing off all the old dirt from my body and sleeping under a warm blanket every night, my condition became even better than it was before I’d gotten sick.

The duke hasn’t visited me once.

I may have recovered more quickly than expected, but it had still been ten days since I came. During those ten days, I hadn’t caught a single glimpse of the duke.

It’s not like I expected him to come anyway... Judging by his actions towards me when we first met, it didn’t seem like he thought of me as his daughter.

Meanwhile, I had clung onto him, yelling at him that he was my father. Thinking back to that moment made me feel a little embarrassed. I didn’t have experience throwing a tantrum in my previous life because I was an orphan.

Ugh, how embarrassing.

Nah, I only feel this way because I’m well-fed and have a nice warm bed to sleep in. Feelings of embarrassment and shame were a luxury in place of pain, suffering, and hunger.

I wish I could keep living here. That thought filled my mind like an inflated balloon, but I still hadn’t heard a word from the duke about allowing me to continue my stay here.

Hmm, I have to find out what kind of person the duke is first. Just by looking at the duke, I could tell that he was a man who was far from positive words like justice, protection, and peace.

As a matter of fact, he looked more like a villain than anything. Given my long-standing romance fantasy experience, villains were usually split into two general categories:

1. On one side, there are villains like Marquess Tarenka who deserve to be beaten up.

2. On the other side are the evil tyrant villains who are secretly good guys (but only good to the heroine).

I prefer villains from the second category. Based on the plot so far, the duke had to fall under the second category! Which meant I’d succeeded in this gamble! Finally!

Every dog truly does have its day...!

—is what I wanted to say, but ever since I was reborn, I was continuously backstabbed by that wicked devil. The last time I yelled that and signed a contract to be reborn, I was met with a life that was much worse than my previous one.

Nothing he said was right. I can’t let my guard down just yet. Now then, in order to get the information I need... I’ll have to work for it.

As I pleaded with him to take me with him, I told the duke that I was willing to work for my food. As long as he didn’t order me to do something outrageous right off the bat like the marquess did, I was pretty confident in my skills.

After all, I started working as a child, even in my previous life. My plan was to diligently work to pay for my food while also getting a sense of what the duke was really like.

If he happened to fall under the first category of villains, I’d lay low for the time being and bolt as soon as I got the chance. But if he fell under the second category, I could pretty much say that my life was finally going to bloom!

Alrighty, let’s get to work then!

I balled up my small fists and made my way.

* * *

“M-my lady...”

“We’ll take care of this...”

The employees of the Phaeraton estate were always so stern.

Sometimes, their moves were so calculated and quiet that you would forget they existed if you didn’t see them with your own eyes.

But at this very moment, the expressionless workers of the estate were quite flustered.

“Please, hand us that rag you have in your hand.”

“I have to clean,” I replied shortly before continuing to clean the windowsill.

“But...”

“I came here on the basis that I would work for my food.”

“Pardon?”

The maids were even more flustered than before at my words. They exchanged brief glances and then opened their mouths as if they had determined something.

“I think there may have been some kind of miscommunication.”

“My lady, you are the youngest daughter of the Phaeraton household. What do you mean that you came here on the basis that you would work for your food?”

“If I really was the youngest daughter of this family, I would’ve been living here from the start.”

Not with Marquess Tarenka.

“Your father abandoned you because you’re nothing more than a mere love child!”

The marquess’s sharp words still lingered deep in my heart. No matter how much I told myself that it wasn’t true.

I had been abandoned.

“I’ll come back to get you in ten days.”

Of the parents who had said that, I’ve never seen a single one return for their child. Moreover, Duke Phaeraton never made any kind of promise to me like that before he left.

A child who was abandoned once will never be considered a child again. That was when I saw a reflection of the cold iron gate closing right before my eyes in my previous life.

“M-my lady, that’s...”

The maid opened her mouth to say something, but the others stopped her.

I wiped even harder in order to wipe away the illusion of my memory that was reflected in the window.

* * *

“What are you doing here?”

I stopped wiping and turned to face the cold voice coming from behind me. A beautiful, picturesque man stood under the afternoon sunlight that seeped in.

It was Duke Phaeraton, the man who was supposedly my father on paper.

It’s rare for him to be home this early.

During my stay here, I asked the others about the duke’s whereabouts multiple times, but the only response I got was that he was out and very busy.

“I’m good at cleaning.”

The window was clean to begin with but after my touch it looked transparent, as if it wasn’t even there. I was pretty confident in my skills.

However, the duke’s eyes turned into daggers.

“Who told you to do something useless like this?”

Useless...?

“I said I would work for my foo—kyah!” Duke Phaeraton lifted me up before I could finish my sentence.

“You’re still too thin.” He eyed me with a dissatisfied look on his face and began walking. I quickly became anxious.

Don’t tell me he’s going to throw me out because I’m useless?!

However, the place he stopped at was the dining hall.

“Eat.”

If you don’t eat, I’ll kill you.

Or at least that’s what his tone sounded like. Utterly afraid of what might happen, I swiftly reached for the plate in front of me. The duke stared at me as I ate—or, shall I say, stuffed myself to survive.

His gaze was so sharp that it made me think, if I didn’t eat now, he might really kill me instead of kicking me out!

I shoved the bread down my throat, not knowing if I had properly chewed it or not. I soon reached my limit.

“Is that all you can eat?” The duke asked as soon as my hands stopped reaching for the food. His voice was so cold that it sent a shiver down my spine.

I once again reached for another plate of food but couldn’t bring myself to eat it. My stomach felt like it was going to explode.

“Surely, you should be able to eat more than that.”

Was it a threat? Was he trying to kill me by feeding me until my stomach exploded?!

T-that cruel man...!